Zachariah says "Well, now you don't have much choice. There is no way we can keep this quiet."

Almort says "That's true. Word of this is probably already spreading through the city. The association will hear of it soon, if they haven't already. On the other hand, no one will know exactly what the aura means right away, so we have a bit of time."

"Okay, so what do we do then?"

Almort says "Well, for starters, your visit to our country is going to have to become an official one. My rank is high enough in the association that I can represent the association in welcoming you. I will need to go and report all of this to the council soon, before they hear too many rumors."

"Alright. What do I need to do?"

Almort says "First, you mentioned opening a trade route. How do you plan to do that?"

"By sea."

Zachariah says "That will not be easy. Any ship traveling west of the city comes under attack from flying demonic beasts. Even with a full crew of hunters it is not possible, there are just too many of the beasts."

"With your ships maybe, my ship is a different story."

Zachariah says "What is so special about your ship?"

"Simple. I built it and I enchanted it."

Almort says "Fair enough. Where is this ship?"

"Less than a week away from the city. We flew ahead so that we could see the city and have some fun. Although, I didn't plan to have the ship come to the city."

Almort says "Why not?"

"Well, for one thing it is manned by elves, most of which are freed slaves. For another, it is absolutely a warship. Also, it is much larger than the ships I have seen that humans use, so I am not sure your harbor could accommodate it."

Zachariah says "How much bigger is it? How many crew and how much cargo can it carry?"

"It is about three times the size of the largest human warship I have seen. It can handle a round a thousand crew and can carry as much as several hundred of those rings."

Zachariah says "Amazing! I don't suppose you would be willing to build a ship like that for my merchant group?"

"Not possible I am afraid. I made it from a unique and highly magical tree."

Zachariah says "Aw, that's too bad. A ship like that would make our merchant group the number one group on the continent."

Almort says "We are getting off topic again. I need to go make my report. King Ash, what is the name of your kingdom?"

"Oh, uh."

Lin says "Don't tell me you haven't come up with a name yet?"

"Not really. Originally I planned to use the beast lands, but that was before the elves. Now it doesn't really seem fitting."

Lin whispers "Just steal something from an anime. Isn't that what you normally do?"

"Yeah, alright. The name of our country is Britannia."

Almort says "Alright. I will go report to the council, then come back and discuss the next steps."

"Okay, thank you."

Lin whispers "I don't recognize that, what anime is it from?"

"Code Geass, I will show it to you later."

Lin says "Okay!"

Zachariah says "I'm sorry, things didn't turn out the way I had planned."

"It's alright. It was my fault things went sideways."

Almort leaves and since we have to wait for him to come back I go ahead and finish the third ring. It is probably going to take Almort an hour, maybe two, since he has to deal with politics. Then again, maybe it will be faster since this place is run by adventurers.

Zachariah says "Thank you for these. We probably have a while before Almort returns. Would you like to do some shopping while you wait?"

"Sure. Sounds good."

Zachariah says "Alright. Give me just a minute. I will go get Clairette, she is my manager for the sales floor, and have her show you around."

Zachariah leaves and returns a minute later with a beautiful young blonde woman. She is almost as beautiful as Lin which makes me wonder if they have a relationship. Not that I really care, it was just a momentary curiosity, not enough for me to ask.

Clairette says "If you will follow me, we can start with the VIP area."

"Sure."

She takes us down to the second floor, but to a different part than where the meeting room was. We enter a large room with racks of materials, several of which immediately catch my eye. However, there is one that I immediately want, it is the mana rich silver.

"How much of this do you have in stock?"

Clairette says "A little under a thousand pounds."

"How much for all of it?"

Clairette says "With your discount, it would be just under a million and a half."

"I will take all of it."

Clairette says "Of course. Out of curiosity, why do you want it? If you don't mind me asking."

"It is one of the best materials I have found for enchanting."

Clairette says "Understood. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity."

Lin laughs and says "If there is one thing that Ash empathizes with, it is curiosity."

"Have you found anything you want?"

Lin says "Yes, this silk would make a beautiful dress."

After getting Lin some silk, I pick out a few other materials that I want. I end up spending all three million gold without ever leaving the VIP room. Once we are done Clairette takes us to a basement storage area to pick up everything we picked out.

Lin takes the silk and I put everything else into my ring, then we head back upstairs. We return to the fifth floor meeting room and sit down to wait for Almort to return. I am really hoping that I don't have to deal with too much pomp and ceremony.

Clairette serves us some tea and then leaves us alone in the room to wait. Zachariah left while we were gone, probably to deal with business matters. Either that or he wanted to put the rings to use right away, or it could be both.

After a while Zachariah returns and since Almort isn't back yet he teaches us the spell to counter shapeshifting. Lin learns it straight away, but it takes me a little bit longer. As soon as I have learned it, I start dismantling it and looking for a way to counter it.

At the same time I am also trying to understand it better and figure out how to use it on a large scale. Ideally I want to be able to cast the spell and have it cover the entire peninsula. I would also like to improve the residue so that it prevents shapeshifting for longer.